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Alamogordo texting drivers: Guess what? You win

Alamogordo Daily NewsBy John Bear, Staff Writer

Posted:
05/16/2013 10:07:38 PM MDT

If you are one of those drivers who proudly proclaim that, "You can stop me from texting and talking on the phone while I'm driving when you pry my cell phone from my cold, dead hand," you may rest at ease.

The city commission failed to pass an ordinance that would have banned talking and texting while driving inside city limits.

The ordinance, which has gone through several manifestations in its two-month-long life, was up for first publication once again Tuesday night.

The latest version banned texting and talking without a hands-free devices while driving.

Only District 2 Commissioner Nadia Sikes, who introduced the bill earlier this year, voted for it.

A proposed amendment that would have made the ordinance only cover texting while driving also failed to pass.

The commission has struggled to pass the ordinance the several times it has come before the elected body, adding and removing various components to and from it, during its half-dozen or so variations.

Some commissioners have objected to language that exempted emergency workers from following the law. Others have only wanted texting while driving banned.

The ordinance was called unenforceable by some and unnecessary by others because there are already laws in the books that deal with distracted drivers.

The latest version of the ordinance contained language that laid out when a driver was presumed to be illegally using a phone behind the wheel. Not everyone liked that part of the ordinance either.

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An audience member at one commission meeting even went so far to suggest that passing such a law would deprive people of their constitutionally guaranteed free speech.

Sikes said 40 states have laws regarding texting while driving but acknowledged that the ordinance has received a good bit of criticism.

Up against heavy opposition, she still voted for it.

"Some people have called this a 'feel good' law," Sikes said. "And maybe it is. But wouldn't it feel good to save a life once in a while?"